Cold Front Read online

  “The dark elves are more your family than those humans, yet you cast them aside and pretend not to be one of them.” Craliun didn’t seem like he was too sure about any of this.

  Ston nodded slowly, trying to see the best way to explain. “We are all family, but there are certain family members who would kill to have something their brother has, and if one is willing to kill for no reason other than anger and jealousy, then that is a piece of my family I do not wish to associate with. I’m not pretending that I’m not a dark elf. I am proud of that simple fact and of my history, but I am not proud of what it looks like my future will be, and I won’t help ruin the lives of so many.”

  Skye stepped forward and bowed her head slightly when Craliun looked at her. “Chief, these humans are in danger. Standing by and watching someone be attacked doesn’t make you neutral; it makes you an aide to the attacker. You teach all of the children in the camp that. Now is your time to show them what that means.”

  Craliun looked almost like he was ashamed. He cast a glance over his shoulder at the crowd of pixies that were watching intently, food forgotten. “Skye is right. We may not like the surfacers, but who would we be if we sat back and watched the dark elves throw something at them that they can’t handle? No. We will help the humans, if only because to stand aside and watch would be everything we’ve stood against when the dark elves came to ask for our help.”

  The pixies all seemed to nod slowly in agreement, but none said anything. I saw Nill standing at the edge of the camp with a scowl while he spun a dagger in his hand. His gaze met mine, and he spat on the ground and turned away, walking off into the darkness. I made a mental note to keep an eye on him, then turned my attention back to the chief. “Thank you, sir. You are the first to help us, but it gives me hope. I would only ask to eat before discussing more about the upcoming war.”

  He nodded and gestured to the fire that was surrounded by small tables with food. “Please, make yourself at home—” He paused for a moment, his eyes searching mine. “—sister.” The crowd murmured too quietly to hear, so I couldn’t tell if they were pleased or unsettled by what he had just done.

  We walked toward the food and made ourselves plates of it before trying to figure out where to eat, but Craliun waved his hand at us to come and sit in his tent.

  His sons had moved farther back so Ston and I could sit beside the chief. Skye sat with Flick and Twitch beside Ston while Regan and Cam sat on my right side. A few pixies brought us plates made out of a strangely light stone with beautiful carvings of the flowers with three petals. I began to eat some strange meat I’d never seen before when the chief started talking quietly to us. “Skye tells me that you entered the underground yesterday morning.”

  “Yes, we had to leave quickly. We only found out about this war the day before. Chief, we must ask for one thing before I leave again. The first attack is scheduled next week at a Temple for the mages, the Temple I grew up in. I was wondering if I could trouble you to send a few of your warriors or scouts, or anyone really, with me. I don’t know anything about the rest of the plans of the dark elves, but this is their first move. They hope to catch us by surprise, and they almost did. If we can beat them back, we may be able to stall them for a short time longer before we ask you for more help.”

  “You need more men and women to fight for you.” His voice was deep, and he didn’t seem pleased, but who would if they had to send their family into battle to probably be killed?

  “Yes,” I said quietly, lowering my head. “I don’t know what I’m doing, sir. I’ll be the first to admit it.”

  “She may be the only one to admit it,” Ston said to the chief before I could finish.

  I gave him a dirty look but continued. “However, the thing I want most is to save as many people as possible. So I’m going to do everything I can in order to protect not only the people I ask you to help me save, but the ones you entrust to my care. As I said before, the loss of life is something I never want to see again. I know, with the position I am in, there is no way to completely avoid it, but I’m going to do everything in my power to see as little as possible. I can’t say that we’ll win, that you’ll see your friends and family again, that any of this will even be worth it, and I definitely can’t say the humans are going to accept you again even if everything works in our favor. All I can say is that I’m going to try.”

  He looked out at the pixies, who by now had all returned to their conversations, which were probably about us. “I have seen these children grow up, and I have seen children leave this camp for another, and I have seen them love, and hate. And I have seen them die. I have buried them, my parents, my friends, my sisters. I have seen every one of them go to the entrance and stand there, looking out into that bright, unfamiliar world, and all any of them want is to take that final step and just go out there and be a part of that life.

  “We will help you. And there will be pixies who will volunteer to go to the surface without a second thought, even if they know they will most likely die. I will send messengers to the other camps, who will send a pixie or two each to meet you at this Temple. Keep them alive, and they will go back to their camps and bring back more to aid in your war. You should find a place to house this army you’re gathering.”

  “I will. Once the humans see that they can’t do this alone, they will help, though they may not want to at first.”

  “You will have to lead them.”

  “There are better people suited to do that. I just wish to fight alongside them.”

  “That won’t be enough, Casey Kelley. I’ve been assured I’m entrusting these people to you, and I will inform the other chiefs of this fact. You are also the only one we have met with, the surfacer we trust the most, and you have promised me to try. I will not leave my people in the hands of a human who does not care for the likes of us. You are my family? Then you will do this. It is your job, no one else’s. If you succeed, it is your victory; if you fail, it is your loss. Whether you like it or not, you are a leader. You will have those ‘more suited’ to help you, but you will be the leader. I can feel there’s a chief inside of you. We just need to yank it out of whatever it’s buried under.”

  I hoped I didn’t fail. I wasn’t sure I could handle that. But in a war there were bound to be numerous battles that we lost. Many lives would be lost even if we won, and I would be the one responsible for it all. There was no way to get around this. Ston may have come to me for help, but in the end, I felt the weight of this. I was gathering people. I was getting prepared for the war. As much as I wanted to pretend I wasn’t, I was the leader. At least until someone said otherwise. “Yes, sir” was all I could reply to Craliun.

  “Good. Now let us eat and celebrate our new agreement. There will not be much time once the fighting has started.” The chief waved a hand to his children, Flick and Twitch, who quickly stood and moved toward us. They were both graceful and reminded me of Liam in the way they walked. There was a pang in my chest at the thought of Liam. I hadn’t seen him in months, but I couldn’t ask for him to come to us now, not with his parents so close to death.

  The chief opened his mouth to say something, but a shrill scream interrupted him. We looked at one another, confused, and I could see the pale fear in the chief’s face. Flick was tense with a warrior’s determination in his eyes as he looked out at the camp. Twitch was drawing into himself, his eyes darting about as he, too, tried to determine what was happening. Skye stood and looked over the heads of the camp as well, and slowly my small group and I also stood.

  The pixies were terrified, looking back and forth, parents counting children, men and women taking firm grips on nearby weapons, kids pulling their knees to their chest and trying to make themselves smaller than they already were.

  Then, “Liana! Liana, where are you?” A father shouting for his daughter. “Liana!” He sounded frantic now, panicking.

  The chief’s voice was quiet. Only those closest to him could hear. “Flick, there are trolls here
.”

  The young pixie’s muscles tensed, and his jaw clenched. “You can practically smell them,” he snarled.

  Twitch took a couple of steps back, and his voice wavered dangerously. “I have to go to my room. I have my journals in there. Last time they set fire to the tents. Father, I need those journals; all of my work is there.”

  “Go, son. Come back quickly, and stay close to Skye,” the chief said and then turned to us. “We have agreed to help you, now help us. We don’t have enough of us, nor the skill, to stop them. We barely made it last time. So, Casey Kelley, your first battle is here. Your first fight against the dark elves, who have sent these creatures to torture us for not agreeing to help them, is now.”

  I tried swallowing the lump in my throat as I nodded stiffly. He wanted me to take charge. He wanted to see me lead. I turned to my small group and said, trying to keep my voice steady, “Ston, Skye, what are we dealing with?”

  Ston spoke first. “Disgusting creatures. Trolls are basically everything your storybooks said. They’re hairy, stupid, and insanely strong.”

  “Weaknesses?”

  Skye scoffed. “Let us know when you find one. We found if you hit them enough they die, but there’s nothing that really sticks out. We’ve tried everything.”

  “Then get on that. Take five or six people and bring all the children here to this tent. The chief will sit with them. I assume he can fight or he wouldn’t have this position. Those five or six will keep them safe enough while we do the rest.”

  “I-I can do that. I can’t do much, but I can do that.” It was Twitch. He had come back and was holding a bag made out of the same canvas-like material as the tent.

  I nodded. “Good, go.”

  “And us? What do we do?” Flick had pulled a long, bright blue sword from its sheath, which now sat on a low table littered with paperwork—probably the chief’s. He was itching to go.

  The father was screaming for Liana still, and the children were being herded into the tent while the parents stood with weapons in their hands, looking at us for direction.

  “You and Regan will follow me. Skye, Cam, and Ston will stay on the other side of camp and oversee people there.”

  And I’ll be with you. Cinder’s voice sounded in my head.

  I know.

  I looked out at the large group of pixies, some watching us, others looking out into the dark. I pulled on my leather gloves. I hadn’t used them in almost a year now, and they felt tight on my hands when I flexed them. There wasn’t much I could say to the pixies, at least nothing that would do anything of importance. Action was what they needed.

  I pulled myself up onto Cinder’s back. He’d get me out there faster than the rest of them. Plus, I think the sight of a young mage riding a wolf the size of a small horse looked impressive, and I needed impressive on my side since I didn’t have anything else at the moment. “Let’s go,” I said and held on to Cinder tightly as he sprang forward.

  We sprinted through the camp, pixies whooping and shouting as they followed, most of them using magic to create balls of light. I had purposefully sent Ston with Cam on the other side of the camp. I wanted to trust him, but the midst of battle wasn’t the time to put that to the test.

  I built a large ball of flame in one hand while gripping Cinder’s fur with the other. He skidded to a stop in the darkness, his ears twitching as he listened. The pixies who had followed me came charging from behind me and lit up the area like streetlights on the surface.

  Trolls. Well over twenty, probably close to thirty or forty, but I didn’t have time to count. They were tall, ten to twelve feet high, matted brown and black fur, large eyes, broken teeth that jutted out, and long claws that stretched out from their paws. The pixies had stumbled to a stop, and even without looking, I knew the expression on all their faces—terror.

  I took a deep breath and released a fierce yell, something I didn’t recognize as my own, as I launched my arm forward unleashing the ball of flame I held. There was a bloodcurdling scream from the troll it hit, his fur set ablaze and his arms raised in the air as he scrambled around.

  Then I gave the order. The two sides ran toward each other and clashed.

  Cinder leapt forward and grabbed a troll’s arm in his teeth. The fur smoked and the smell of burned flesh came to my nose. I had almost forgotten that as a cinderwolf, he had some magic in him. I slid off, leaving Cinder to his battle while I sought out my own.

  A howl of pain made me turn to see a pixie thrown to the ground and his leg crushed beneath the foot of the troll who was now going in for another blow. I ran toward them, low to the ground so my fingertips brushed along the surface. I was about fifteen feet away when I threw my hand in the air toward the creature. A stone spike followed my path and connected under his jaw, stopping just after exiting his skull.

  I knelt beside the pixie, a young man screaming in agony. I gripped his leg tightly, probably causing pain, and I brought my own Life Force through his, healing his leg to the best of my abilities in the short time I had.

  When I finished, I turned back to the fighting, only to see Regan shooting at the chest of a troll easily fifteen feet tall, probably the biggest one here. “Regan!” The scream tore from my throat before I could stop it as I rushed toward her, but I already knew I’d be too late. Its arm was swinging toward her now. No spell would be quick enough to stop him. “No!”

  There was a flash of bright blue and a cry came from the creature. And then a thud as a thick, bloody, hairy arm hit the ground. There he stood, his pale face framed by dark hair and dark red dripping from the blue blade. He had eyes so dark they were almost black and a devilish smirk on his lips. “Come on!” Flick roared at the troll. I watched as he flung himself at the towering monster. He moved so quickly I could barely keep an eye on him. Every now and then, I could see the shimmering silver of his thin wings. The beast fell in what seemed like seconds. Flick was bloody, splatter on his face and clothes, and his arms dripped with dark blood from his foe. His eyes flicked up to meet mine and he grinned before moving on to another, his battle cry filling the cavern.

  I wanted to fear him, how strong he was and how much he desired to kill these things. But I also knew I owed him my life because he saved Regan’s, and he would probably save mine before this was over.

  I rushed over to Regan, who was holding her head and on one knee, breathing heavily. “Are you okay?” I asked, taking her hand away. There was blood on her hand and her hair was damp.

  “I’m fine,” she panted. “Go help the others; this isn’t serious. They need you right now.”

  “Regan—”

  “Don’t!” she snapped, refusing to look at me. “Go. Go help them. I’m fine on my own. I don’t need you.” She spat her words out like venom and stood, her shoulder pushing me aside when she did.

  “Regan…,” I whispered.

  “I said go” was all she said before turning away from me and reloading her gun.

  I bit my lip hard enough to draw blood to keep from saying or doing anything stupid, which did include crying. “Fine,” I said and walked away from her.

  In what had probably been over an hour I took another two trolls down and called to Cinder.

  We’re almost done on this side. I need to get over to where Cam and Ston are. Can you take me?

  On my way.

  Cinder ran toward me, and I pulled myself onto his back and leaned forward. “Go,” I whispered in his ear, and he took off.

  The fighting on their side hadn’t gone as well. I saw more pixies on the ground and more trolls still standing. “Find Cam!” I shouted over the chaos.

  I killed one of the trolls before I saw her kneeling over a young girl who held a mace in her limp hand. “About time you showed up!” she yelled to me as I jumped down, leaving Cinder to go and help the fight.

  “I was a little busy,” I responded with a small smile. I hated to admit it, but I missed this. The almost dying and the fighting and the magic. I didn’t want anyo
ne to die over this, to even get hurt, but I missed feeling bonded to my comrades and the adrenaline pumping through me. Historians, philosophers, novelists, and anyone else who thinks that they understand war and people have said that many soldiers leave war and miss it. It’s not that they want people to die; there’s just something imbedded into their systems that makes them crave the feeling again. I didn’t want to say it, but I was a victim of my own mind now, and it wanted this.

  “Us too. How are you over there?”

  “Better than it is here. Where’s Skye? And Ston?”

  “Hell if I know. I’ve been tending to the wounded. I’ve barely had time to even think about them.” Cam stood from her freshly healed fellow soldier and finally faced me. “We really need you right now. We’re getting crushed. Even after they’re healed they need time to recover. They don’t have the energy to charge back in, and usually they’re too scared to. Our numbers are dropping fast.”

  “That’s why I came over here. I’m glad I came when I did. I should have been here sooner.”

  “No, this is soon enough. Go, kill some of these bastards.”

  I nodded and ran into the thick of things to do just that.

  I killed another three on my own, and with the help of two pixies I was able to kill another four. I was breathless and bleeding heavily from my left arm and a spot on my back ached from a troll that had caught me off guard with one of his massive paws. I was also pretty sure I had two cracked ribs at least. But we were the ones left standing. Trolls littered the stone floor, not a single one left standing. Pixies were among the dead as well, though. Blood was on my hands, just like the chief had said. Still, it was a victory.

  I found Cam, Ston, and Skye after a few minutes of walking through the dead. “Find who we lost in the battle and bring them to camp. They deserve a proper burial.”